The Accidental Orphan

The Accidental Orphan

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Overview

Short-listed for the 1999 Silver Birch Award

Eleven-year-old Ellen finds herself wrongly accused of stealing while selling flowers on the Liverpool docks. In her escape she becomes a stowaway aboard a steamship bound for Canada, an unwilling member of a band of orphans headed for new families on the Prairies. Adopted by the Aitkens, a family on a Manitoba homestead, she soon lands herself at the centre of a number of calamities, unexpectedly learning about rural life in the New World and the value of family ties, both those forged in blood and those forged in trust.

Awards

Short-listed

Silver Birch Award

1999

Paperback

March 1998

Status: Available

$8.95

144 pp

ISBN 978-0-88878-385-1

5.25 x 8.25 in

Digital download (EPUB)

March 1998

Status: Available

$7.99

144 pp

ISBN 978-1-55488-625-8

Digital download (PDF)

March 1998

Status: Available

$8.95

144 pp

ISBN 978-1-45970-995-9

Reviews

Written for the eight to 12-year-old audience, Horne's novel vividly portrays Canadian life in the late 1800s.

Focus on Adoption (February, 2000)

Horne paints a very credible picture of homestead life in the 1880s in rural Manitoba, its one-room schools, the flurry of activity at threshing time, the battles with blizzards and hailstorms.

The Edmonton Journal (December, 1998)

... a detailed and interesting picture of life on an 1880s prairie farm.

Quill and Quire (May, 1998)

Horne writes a suspenseful novel.

The characters are well drawn, the feelings of despair, abandonment, hope, and joy realistically portrayed.

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.